Douglas County Chief Deputy Marty Bilek said thieves installed a second card reader inside four gas pumps in northwest Omaha.

“It takes the information off the credit card off the magnetic strip. They'll use that to create a duplicate card and then fraud is just a matter of whatever the debt limit is on the card,” Bilek said.

Deputies and the Secret Service call the device a skimmer. They said thieves have a universal type of a key to open up the credit card machine to install the skimmer.

“It's designed so it can attach quickly, so in some cases, they can attach the device unnoticed while the business is open,” Bilek said.

Bilek said the thieves then come back, remove the skimmer, duplicate the card and charge anywhere from $100 to $1,500.

"In this particular case, the thieves got the information and traveled to California to use the cards, North Hollywood to be exact,” Bilek said.

The sheriff’s office knows of four gas stations where the skimmers were installed. It said they know of at least four victims, but they know there will be more. They encourage anyone who has paid for gas at the pump to check their credit card statements.

Bilek said they won’t name the affected gas stations because they do not want to disrupt business. The gas stations are working with investigators to provide surveillance video.

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